Riots four given jail sentences
FOUR Asian men charged with violent disorder during the Burnley riots have been sentenced to a total of more than nine years at Preston Court Court.

Tariq Saddique, of Azalea Road, Blackburn was sentenced to three years imprisonment; Mohammed Bashir, 22, of Forest Street, Burnley, two and a half years; Asif Khan, 24, of Francis Street, Burnley, two years; and Haroon Ahmed, 23, of Calder Close, Nelson, to 21 months.

Two others convicted of violent disorder on the same day were punished less severely because they were under the age of 18 when they committed the offence.

Abdul Rahim Kayani, 19, of Brougham Street, Burnley, was sentenced to 18 months at a young offenders institute and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a 12 months detention and training order.

Farooq Bashir, 25, of Abel Street, Burnley, was given a 180 hour community service order for his part in the disturbances.

Sentencing the men, Judge David Boulton read out statements from various witnesses who had given evidence, including police officers and motorists who saw at first hand the disturbances in the Duke Bar area of Burnley last summer.

A police sergeant on duty near the Duke of York pub said he saw a group of Asians carrying weapons running towards him and other officers.

The police had made a cordon across the road but were not immediately aware of the number of people involved.

They had had no shields or helmets and could not stop the group, so they withdrew to Colne Road.

Some were throwing missiles at them and others shouted abuse.

A motorist described how an Asian youth had smashed his car window, showering his baby with glass and seconds later his rear car window was smashed with an axe.

Judge Boulton said: "Each individual here to be sentenced was not responsible for the individual acts of outrage I've described but to some extent they are all responsible for something.

"It would be quite wrong and misleading to look at what one member of the crowd which marched on the police did in isolation.

"The actions of any one person must be seen in the context of the general disorder."

He reduced a possible three-year sentence for Ahmed to 21 months due to his guilty plea, the fact he showed remorse and surrended himself to the police, as well as his impressive list of testimonials supporting him.

Ahmed, who is part way through a degree at the University of London, had been involved in the charge on the police and had smashed the window of a police dog van.

Kayani was given credit for his guilty plea on a charge of violent disorder relating to the charge on the police.

When sentencing father-of-two Saddique, Judge Boulton said he had hit property with a stick and encouraged others and was also part of the charge on the police, despite earlier information by his defence that he was helping to calm the situation.

Thre judge said: "I have reduced the sentence partly because I don't want the message to go out that in this case there's a comparison with the white defendants, who have already been sentenced, who were clearly racist and drunk.

"But I want to punish you and send out a message in relation to civil disorder of this massive scale.

"When you attacked the CCTV camera later, the purpose was not on the spur of the moment but was a quite deliberate attack for the purpose of ensuring that everyone there afterwards could not be identified in taking part in further attacks."

Judge Boulton told Bashir that he had showed no remorse in his evidence or to the probation officer because he had made it plain he did not accept the verdict of the jury.

But he said he was impressed by the views of the others involved who took the view that he was slightly less culpable than Saddique and he reduced a three-year sentence to two and a half years.

Khan, who is currently serving a four-year jail sentence for a drug-related charge, was given a two-year sentence to run concurrently with his current sentence.

He was found guilty of violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon, a sword.

The 17-year-old, who appeared with the others in court, had pleaded guilty to violent disorder for taking part in the charge on police. He had also been seen banging on windows with a stick.

He was warned that if he had been in his mid 20s he could have received three years imprisonment.

The case of Intakhab Alam 27, of New Hall Street, Burnley, was adjourned for medical reports until November 26.